Charles Moran III

1936 - 2015

AMHERST – Charles Moran III, 78, professor emeritus of English, died Sunday, June 21, 2015, at home, from the effects of acute myeloid leukemia. His wife, son and daughter were with him.

Son of the late Charles Moran Jr. and Josephine (Taylor) Moran, he was born Nov. 6, 1936, in New York City, and was raised there and in Rye, New York. After graduating from St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1954, and from Princeton University in 1958, he taught English at St. George's and then at the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, before receiving his doctorate in English from Brown University in 1967. That year he joined the English Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Arriving at UMass as a specialist in 18th century British literature, he found his true calling in teaching writing to UMass students and tutoring in New York and Springfield. In 1979 and 1981 he directed two federally funded Institutes for the Teaching of Writing for primary and secondary school teachers, which led to a decade of work in Massachusetts high schools and creation of the teacher-directed UMass/Amherst Writing Project, now the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, which he directed from 1994 to 2003. In 1982 he helped develop and then directed the on-going University Writing Program, which administers writing classes for all first-year students and for all third-year students in their majors. After retiring from UMass in 2005, he continued working with graduate students until this past winter. A dedicated supporter of the university and its mission, he also co-chaired the UMass Rising campaign committee for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Among his professional honors were the UMass Distinguished Teacher award for 1981-82, the University President's Award for Public Service in 1998, the 1999 Outstanding Teacher award from the Massachusetts Council of Teachers of English, and the 2003 Outstanding Technology Innovator award from the national Committee on Computers in Composition and Communication.

His publications include six co-authored or co-edited books and many, many articles in professional journals.

He involved himself in civic and musical activities, as well. Living in Pelham for 26 years, he was Pelham Town Moderator and later a Finance Committee member. After moving back to Amherst in 1999, he served as a Town Meeting member, a nine-year member of the Public Works Committee, and co-chair of the Transportation Plan Task Force. With his wife Kay he was a 30-year member of Da Camera Singers.

Until his recent illness he was always physically active, racing small sailboats as a youth and later crewing on larger boats, including in two trans-Atlantic races. At Princeton, where he rowed, he was captain of the lightweight crew; as a graduate student at Brown University he coached the freshman crew. One of the original members of the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club in 1972, he participated in many road races and ran a number of marathons, including two Boston Marathons. In his early 60's he switched to cycling, joining the Northampton Cycling Club and the Northeast Masters Cycling Association. He competed in the 2011 National Senior Olympics cycling events in Houston, placed second in his age group in the NMCA 2013 and 2014 Championship Series, and completed NCC's Mount Greylock Hill Climb several times, most recently in September 2014.

Until automobiles became computerized he changed the oil and tuned up his own cars and meticulously maintained any other equipment he or any family members used, from boat rigging to antique clocks, bicycles to chainsaws, lawnmowers to snow blowers. He spent hours daily in his garden every spring, summer and fall.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Kay (Johnson) Moran; son Seth C. Moran and wife Elisa Wells and their children, Shannon and Sarah Wells-Moran of Camas, Washington; daughter Amy L. Moran and husband Peter Marko and their son William Moran-Marko of Kailua, Hawaii; brother David T. Moran, Sr., of Longmont, Colorado, and nephews David, Jr., and Montgomery Moran; a half-sister Martha (Moran) Bird of Vermont; a half-brother Amadee Moran of Utah; a cousin Mary Lee (Fahnestock) Leggett of New York City; and his mother-in-law Virginia L. Johnson of Amherst.

A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Moran-Herrington Graduate Fellowship in Composition and Rhetoric, c/o Lucia Miller, College of Humanities & Fine Arts, Dickinson Hall 104, 155 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003.

Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

To sign a Guest Book, express condolences, share memories and read other obituaries, go to www.gazettenet.com/obituaries.